[grandempire]

> I'd have to do it in person and it would be hard to balance with a full time job and I would need to work to just pay for life

This is true. Don’t compromise. To get the value of a degree you need to be studying full time for something like 8-9 months of a year for 3-4 years.

To make the community college idea concrete, the first 2 years of engineering are fairly standard. Take these and then transfer:

- calculus (2 semesters) - chemistry and labs (3 semesters) - physics and labs (3 semesters) - engineering stats (1 semester) - intro sequence in your field (circuits or statics/dynamics, 2 semesters)

Bonus if they have differential equations or linear algebra, but they usually don’t.

Get a requirements list for your major from the state school. Know every course. Make sure every class transfers from community college. They should have it in writing which courses are equivalent. Don’t trust that the counselor will get it right for you. Don’t take any course that doesn’t explicitly have an equivalent course number.